Christmas not the biggest for retail marketing budgets

Christmas is not the most important season for the majority of retailers to engage in affiliate marketing activity, according to research by performance management agency R.O.EYE. The study surveyed prominent retailers across the fashion, travel, gaming, finance and automotive sectors.

While 45% agreed the festive season was a key period, most preferred to direct budgets towards affiliate marketing during the New Year getaway (24%) and UK summer time (19%), with Easter, September’s new school term and Halloween each receiving 4% of the vote respectively.

Almost all – 95% – of retailers said they are allocating between 5% and 20% of their overall marketing budgets to Christmas affiliate marketing activities this year. The remaining number is investing more heavily, allocating between 30% and 40%, the study found.

The survey also asked retailers about key areas of affiliate marketing they will be investing in next year.

40% intend to focus on attribution modelling, while a further 40% will optimise platforms for mobile and tablet traffic. Developing product feeds was cited by 35% as important, while 15% of retailers will be launching affiliate programmes in new markets outside of the UK.

Mark Kuhillow, founder of R.O.EYE said: “With 40% of retailers looking for new ways to attribute sales in 2015, the industry needs to help identify intelligent, innovative ways of rewarding affiliates for the level of engagement they bring to an online shop. In turn, this will enable retailers to maximise revenue from the affiliate channel.”

When questioned about their biggest challenge in 2014, 40% said they had difficulty in scaling affiliate-generated revenue. An abundance of cash back and voucher code affiliates affected 15%, while the channel’s ability to offer incremental measurement was highlighted by a further 15% of retailers.